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Contents: My Commission-Joining Depôt-Battle of WaterlooMoney-lending-Heiress-hunting - Going Abroad-The VoyageLanding in India-The Regiment at Madras-Marching in IndiaOut-station in India-Cantonment Details-Departure for the Coast -Homeward Voyage-Arrival in England-Recruiting StationIreland-Second Visit to India. TRAVELS IN BUENOS AYRES, and the ADJACENT PROVINCES of the RIO DE LA PLATA. By J. A. B. BEaumont, Esq. 1 vol. 8vo. with a Map. 9s. 6d. AN EPISTLE from ABELARD to ELOISE. By THOMAS STEWART, Esq. Second Edition. 2s. 6d. Such, if there be, who loves so long, so well- POPE, IN the establishment of the paper system, the country bankers could have had no material advantage, because the stamps charged upon their notes, with the other expenses attending them, amounted annually to nearly as much as the annual use of the money so obtained was worth. The country bankers were prohibited by law from charging more than five per cent. interest to the public. The expense of their notes could not be much less than three per cent., and thus a gross profit of only two per cent. per annum on their circulation was left for the country bankers, out of which they had to bear the risk of bad debts, and then the remainder would serve as a remuneration for their time and attention. B In fact, the expense of the capital raised by the country banker, by the issue of cash notes, may be said to be about the same as that of the capital which he obtains upon interest deposits, viz., from two to three per cent. per annum. Now, supposing the country banker to be able to make five per cent. of his capital, this leaves him no great matter of profit. Upon a circulation of ten millions of small notes, it might amount to from 200,000l. to 300,000l. annually. The profit which the public derive from the use of bills of exchange, which are virtually the very same instruments as promissory notes, is probably a hundred times as great. The bills of exchange may amount to about four hundred millions sterling in common circulation; and if we reckon the profits of trade generally at about fifteen per cent., we shall find that the capital thus raised pays the public a profit of sixty millions per annum. It does not appear that Lord Goderich has said any thing yet about abolishing bills of exchange, but there is reason to expect that he contemplates such a measure, on the alleged ground that the manufacture of paper money is "an interference with the King's prerogative." Mr. Cobbett has the merit of originating this notable discovery; and Lord Goderich and his colleagues, like apt scholars, have in this and many other instances readily adopted the lessons of their great teacher. But although it is clear that the country bankers could have no great profit in the issue of cash notes, yet it does not follow that they had therefore no interest in the preservation of a system under which their own debts and credits, and all the general debts and credits of the nation, were contracted. The business of the country bankers is to act as a medium between the debtor and the creditor interest of the country. They collect the dormant and unemployed capital of the latter, and give it action and vitality by lending it out to the former, in a variety of ways. The country bankers, therefore, are not benefited by the depreciation of the currency; because the debtor to whom they lend money, pays them back the very same depreciated money as they themselves pay to the creditor from whom they borrowed the undepreciated money. It is the public, and not the banker, that gets the advantage of using a depreciated currency; or, rather, the debtor interest, or active interest of the country, is benefited at the expense of the creditor interest. A man borrows money because he wants to employ it, and another lends money because he has not the means of employing it. The banker is the medium of communication between them. Without his assistance a great proportion of the capital of the country would be stagnant, and a great proportion of the labour of the country would be unemployed. By means of his interference the stagnant capital of the country is made active, at the particular times and in the particular places where its activity is from time to time required. When the currency is depreciated, the debtor interest of the country is benefited; trade is made |